Photograph: Michael Tran
Your animated adaptation of Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet is about a deported poet delivering sermons. It's not your average children's movie. What's great about the story is that it's very simplistic. It's not complicated philosophy or even that sophisticated writing. However, it's managed to touch so many people because there's a lot of truth in what he says. His story doesn't teach so much as remind you of things that you know deep down.
Was it easy to make? It was such a difficult thing to make! It was exhausting and complicated. When you do something original, it's hell. It's a completely independent production. No studio would do a movie like this. We still don't have distribution.
Photograph: PR
Spiritual discussion is unusual for a film like this. Are you spiritual? I am a spiritual person but I am not a religious spiritual person. I don't want anyone giving rules to my relationship with God or my spirituality. Sometimes I find spirituality in art or in science because it's about discovering the source of who we are. Spirituality is about creation and the exploration of the unknown.
Did you have a religious upbringing? Yes, I was brought up a Catholic. And I have respect for it and I got a lot of good things out of it. I believe in values that are very similar to Catholics. I also like this Pope very much. I really like him!
Have you met him? No. I don't do celebrity spiritual tours. But I have a lot of respect for the guy. I think that sometimes it's religion that keeps us separate though. If you take the religion out, if you take all the countries away, all the culture away, you will find that there is a purity to a human being and a unity to who we are.